It’s not a huge surprise to see Parker atop the leaderboard. He was billed as the more “NBA-ready” prospect with a better current offensive repertoire. He can easily become Milwaukee’s lead scorer, albeit in a crowded frontcourt with John Henson, Ersan Ilyasova and the troubled Larry Sanders.

In Cleveland, Wiggins won’t ever have to be the lead offensive option. Kyrie Irving is the team’s star, a former Rookie of the Year himself and has averaged 20.7 points per game for his career so far. Dion Waiters also has averaged 15.3 points per game in his two seasons. Wiggins will be able to grow naturally as a third or fourth option offensively and shine with his defense and athleticism.

If one recalls, Anthony Bennett was listed as sixth in the 2013-14 odds. Michael Carter-Williams, initially listed as fifth, overtook post-draft favorites Trey Burke and Victor Oladipo (eventual runner-up) to win the award.

Jacob Rosen is a long-time contributor to WaitingForNextYear. He's also a writer online at SportsAnalyticsBlog and Nylon Calculus . An Akron native, Jacob is a current MBA student at the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. You can follow him on Twitter @WFNYJacob or e-mail him at udjrosen(at)gmail(dot)com.

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I’m surprised Parker isn’t a heavy favorite. Nobody cares about defense in the ROY voting, so you’re going 100% offense stats. Parker is walking into a situation where they’re going to give him the ball and look to him to score a lot. Wiggins is coming onto a team where he’s maybe the 4th option on offense. Add in the fact that Parker is supposed to be well ahead of Wiggins right now as offensive player, and this is a no-brainer.

The_Real_Shamrock

Wiggins has a lot to learn not to mention maturing physically I see not only Parker outdoing him his first season but possibly quite a few other guys. People who expect Wiggins to come in and be the next LBJ will be greatly disappointed because those comparisons are probably two years away at a minimum.

mgbode

and, if I was a betting man, then I would throw some money down on Embiid. Not only would he also be going into a fast-paced system (more counting stats, which voters love), but he’d be their frontcourt scorer as well, and, if he was known to be healthy, then he’d be among the favorites.

Not to mention, if he does come and play well coming back from injury, then that storyline is going to help propel him to more headlines, which also helps in such award voting.

mgbode

who expects Wiggins to come in and be the next LBJ? heck, who thinks we’ll be able to compare them in 2 years?

and, Parker has much more maturing on his body to do than Ender. Jabari has built-in ROY advantages as Pat explained, but not for these reasons.

Pat Leonard

Yep, I like the Paul George comparisons much better than the LBJ comparisons.

jeremysexton

ROY comes down to PPG, team wins, and draft position. Parker is almost certainly scoring more than Wiggins, but the Cavs should again be the better team. The question will be whether the Cavs make the playoffs while the Bucks miss. If so, then I think Wiggins has the leg up.

Pat Leonard

Team wins? Michael Carter-Williams won ROY last year. His team was absolutely awful and he was drafted outside the top 10. It comes down to stats.

Not necessarily trying to be combative, but I don’t see that in the ROY history. Most of the guys who won played on bad teams and put up good stats. Damian Lillard (33-49), Blake Griffin (32-50), Tyreke Evans (25-57), Kevin Durant (20-62), etc.

You have to look at who their competition was, though. If a team has a top 5 pick, they were almost certainly terrible the season prior and are probably going to be bad the next year.

Take Damian Lillard for example. The other competition that season? Anthony Davis (27-55), Bradley Beal (29-53), and Andre Drummond (29-53).

I’m not saying it’s the most important factor, but the regressions run on past ROY voting shows it to be significant. Ultimately, points and draft position are the most important, but the team’s record does play a role.

I think in a race like Wiggins/Parker, it will not only play a role subconsciously but be an explicit part of the national conversation. Both teams missed the playoffs last year and were bad. If one goes to the playoffs and the other doesn’t, expect every NBA journalist to talk about how much that player has helped that team turn things around.

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I was actually glad I didn't see the result. I can't stand the fact that the likes of the Leader and other outlets actually keep ST records and rank the teams like it was the regular season.Great job, bode.

Believe me when I say I'm a big fan of Matthew Dellavedova. Probably the biggest fan of his of the folks who regularly comment here. But in no way do I think the reason that Delly can't rack up assists is because LeBron controls the ball. I've seen enough games without LeBron to come to […]